[LoveLinux]

I have mixed race children and do whatever it takes to make sure that they are in schools that made up of mostly white, Asian, or Indian (India) students. Black and Hispanic students have shown no signs of valuing education and the schools usually plagued with violence. I'm not alone in this thinking; every single Asian family I know does the same.

[mattdeboard]

>Black and Hispanic students have shown no signs of valuing education and the schools usually plagued with violence.

ALL of them? Almost certainly not. You're just being plain, old fashioned racist. You also sound ignorant and naive to claim to have never met a black or Hispanic student who shows a single sign of valuing education.

Do you live in the Bay Area? If so, take a trip over to San Jose and visit some of the high schools schools there with predominantly white & asian students (there are only a few). They're not garden parties. They're rough schools with gangs and drugs.

[adrianN]

It doesn't have to be all of them. Just a few are enough to disturb the learning environment.

[mattdeboard]

Just a few what? Black students? Disruptive students? Disruptive black students?

[pjscott]

I don't think you two actually disagree. You want to send your kids to a place where the parents value education, and you're using ethnicity as an easy indirect way of measuring this. A lamentably reasonable strategy.

[mattdeboard]

No, they definitely do. LoveLinux is basing his/her decision on racial bias, the other guy is not.

[tzs]

What decision? He simple stated, accurately, a fact. How can a fact be racially biased?

White and Asian neighborhoods generally generate higher property taxes than black neighborhoods. Schools are largely funded by property taxes. Therefore it should come as no surprise that White and Asian schools are on average better.

[potatolicious]

His causality is off, way off. That's really the main issue. Both parents here have the same motivation, admirable enough, but one chooses to subscribe to an unreliable predictor for his decision making.

A predictor that is toes a really fine line between statistical reliability and outright bigotry.

In any case, we know that socioeconomic status is a far better predictor of educational success than race. There is a Hugh correlation between race and SES but it's far from causal. I think the main objection here is that he seems to claim it is.

[patrickgzill]

Motivation is not the same as delivering results.

I might have the same high motivation to be an awesome games programmer, but that still doesn't mean I will be as good as Carmack.

I don't fault LoveLinux for his viewpoints, as they are based on his observation; and he is trying to make the best decision for his kids... I think if what he/she had said, was said by Bill Cosby or George Lopez, we would be applauding their honesty...

[mattdeboard]

Yes, insiders to a group generally get more leeway to make broad declarations about the state of the group that outsiders aren't qualified to make.

[astrec]

Tragically it's an excellent predictor, but his rationale for believing it so and subsequent gross generalisation is extraordinarily ignorant.

[burgerbrain]

Their technique differs, but their motivation is the same. They both just want to be good parents.